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Tuesday, July 24, 2007

blythe spirit

July 24I've been having spelling issues lately. I wanted a thorough definition for "blythe" as in "blythe spirits", the name I gave to dancers we saw on the weekend. Dictionary dot com spells it "blithe" which I think looks mean, not happy. So I thought maybe it was a British/US thing but apparently not, as Shelley's poem "To a Skylark", from which Noel Coward took his play title "Blithe Spirit", spells it "blithe".

When I was growing up, we had a cookie tin on which was printed the poem about what one is like if one is born on a certain day of the week. I read it so much that I had it memorized (too many cookies, perhaps). Some years after noticing it as a kid, it occurred to me to ask what day of the week I had been born on and Mum told me it was Sunday. Ever since then, I have been a little conceited about it.

(From Dictionary dot com:) blithe O.E. bliþe "joyous, kind," from P.Gmc. *blithiz "gentle, kind" (cf. O.S. bliði "bright, happy," O.N. bliðr "mild, gentle," O.H.G. blidi "gay, friendly," Goth. bleiþs "kind, friendly, merciful"). Rare since 16c. No cognates outside Gmc. "The earlier application was to the outward expression of kindly feeling, sympathy, affection to others, as in Gothic and ON.; but in OE. the word had come more usually to be applied to the external manifestation of one's own pleased or happy frame of mind, and hence even to the state itself." [OED]

The Poem

Monday's child is fair of faceTuesday's child is full of graceWednesday's child is full of woeThursday's child has far to goFriday's child is loving and givingSaturday's child works hard for a livingBut the child that is born on the Sabbath Day is bonny, blythe, good and gay.